Thursday, December 07, 2006

Trip to Amici di Don Bosco

After the numerous recommendations of friends, we finally managed to get off of our lazy butts the other day, and visit Amici, a popular pasta place in the area. What's so funny about this is that we've been frequenting WalterMart (which is located right beside Don Bosco) for over a year now, and yet we never even knew that such a restaurant existed within the Don Bosco campus. Well, we discovered TWO things, actually... Amici, and the clinic of blind masseurs which is just the place that Ian needs since he loves getting a good massage

In any case, we found Amici to be a nice place, though we were sort of a bit thrown off by the fact that different types of food had to be ordered at different counters. I suppose we got too spoiled at A Veneto where everything is ordered in one go.

So yeah... there's a counter where you could get coffee, huge sandwiches, paninis, and others. Then there's a counter for pasta, a counter for pizza and calzone, and a separate counter for dessert items such as gellato, sansrival and cakes. For those who want a typical rice + viand meal, there's another counter for a la carte items (while we were there, we saw a guy order half a roast chicken and three cups of rice... he must have been really hungry...).

Also, unlike A Veneto where one order of pasta is good enough for two to three people, one order of pasta at Amici is meant for one person, though it's such a big helping that it may actually be enough for two people with slightly smaller appetites.

Anyway, enough of the blather and on with the pictures!

We of course headed straight for the pasta counter to try out the pasta. I found out a few minutes after taking this photo that the lady in the picture was actually a former officemate of mine. hehe... small world. So, we managed to eat good food that day, AND catch up on some news with old friends. Fun. ^_^

I found the skylights to be a particularly nice touch.

One of the dishes on display at the pasta counter.

And here comes our orders of Pasta Montanara, which is described in the menu as "Spinach fusilli with sausage, bell pepper, cheese, sauce, peperoni and salami". And it delivers! YUM!!! And Ian can't wait to dig in, either. Hehehe... The bread is also good since it was garlic-y, buttery and basil-y.

Before and after shots...

After eating, we of course wanted some dessert, and hence I found the COUNTER OF JOY... erm, I mean, the dessert counter.

I just wanted to take a photo of the bar because it's so colorful... hehe...

In any case, Ian wanted the sansrival, while I went for some Tira Misu gellato. YUMMM!!!

And thus comes the inevitable...

And here are the other parts of the whole canteen...

The coffee and sandwich counter, with a display case full of delicious-looking things.

And here's the a la carte section for those who want a rice meal.

We plan to try the pizza and other flavors of gellato (did I spell that right?) next time around.

Another thing that I found nice about the place would be the sight of the canteen's manongs and manangs preparing dishes that may pretty much pass off as perhaps three or four-star caliber cooking.